Should we have a statue of Buddha in our home?

Full Question

My wife placed a small statue of Buddha on the mantelpiece in our living room. I would rather not see it, but she claims it is just for ornamental purposes. Is there a problem with this?

Answer

There is nothing wrong with collecting artifacts from other cultures, including religious ones, so long as they are not used for non-Christian religious purposes and do not give scandal. But there is a problem with disturbing the spiritual peace of one’s husband and possibly scandalizing visitors who may not realize that the piece is ornamental. For those reasons, I recommend that your wife move the Buddha statue to a more obscure area of your home.

The only reason Buddah was not Christian is because he was born before Christ. I am Catholic through and through however I think you should know what Buddah stood for. He does not contradict Christianity. I do not suggest worshiping idols but to have one in your home to help remind you of how to treat others should not be a cause for scandal.

”break the pagan relic” Really?
Like the first fanatic Christians which they destroyed and burnt the library of Alexandria and the Greek temples? Some people still have obscurantism for anything. Nobady said to worship this statue of Buddha or other things. Our Lord is Jesus Christ but please don’t beacome vandals and zealot.

He should do research about Buddha & see he is not considered a god.
Maybe place it in their bedroom or leave it where she first placed it & just see it as an ornamental thing.
There are more impt things to worry about people!

I do not agree with the criticism that Christians are narrow minded beings just because they do not want to have symbols of other religions in their homes. I was a lukewarm Catholic married to a non practicing Anglican during the time we were given a costly statue of Buddha, a foot high, made of ivory. I thought it was quite a unique and interesting mantelpiece at the time and kept it as such. After some years, as I grew stronger in my own faith and coming from the Orient where Buddhism is a popular religion, I realized I was displaying and housing a symbol of a religion not my own right in the center of my home in my living room and this made me feel uneasy and unfaithful to my God. I also discovered that getting rid of a statue of Buddha was not easy. My husband and I called up several Buddhist temples and offered to give them a beautiful ivory Buddhist statue but was refused by everyone of them. It’s almost as though something was working to keep Buddha in our home. A friend finally agreed to take the statue and bring it to a temple. I never asked about this outcome. I guess my point is when a Catholic or a Christian prefers their own religious symbols in the home to another religion they are not being small minded, but strong in their chosen faith. This is admirable and should not be criticized. A Catholic lady I know has decorated her house with a lot of Buddhist statues and paintings, simply because I suspect she thinks they are decorative. However there are no visible Catholic symbols in her home which I find quite sad and just makes me think she is indifferent to her own faith.

Bless it, and destroy it. It is false idolatry plainly because Buddhism, through means of meditation and chant aims for the follower to seek “enlightenment” and “divinity” just like hindiusm. We are not enlightened or divine beings, but children of the one true divine Being of the Holy Trinity, One God. Always have the Crucifix in your home to remind you of his sacrifice of Love for us to keep u living in peace and love, not a buddha.

I came to this page because I was looking for clarification on whether it was right to display a Buddha statue being catholic. There are a few things that I’ve come to realize after reading these posts. First off I don’t think it’s narrow minded to not want to display a figure of a different religion. I’m not dissing his teachings I think Buddha was a positive figure but he is still a symbol of Buddhism. Same reason I wouldn’t have a pentagram on my living room floor. Even though it’s not necessarily satanic it is still not an appropriate symbol to display in a catholic home. I wouldn’t want to give people the wrong idea, if they see a Buddha statue and pentagram on the floor but a cross tucked away in another room that no one sees how could I really claim to be catholic. It would be really confusing. It’s like if I was dressed as a cop and walking down the street, someone asks me to help them and then I say just because I’m dressed like a cop doesn’t mean I am. It wouldn’t make sense. So that’s how I feel about displaying symbols of different religions. I just don’t feel like it’s the right thing to do.